A kindness and gratitude journal that teaches you to be kinder to yourself and others and helps you create inspiring messages for all. It all started with a single stone on a beach in Cape Cod and now spans the globe. The Kindness Rocks Project, founded by Megan Murphy, author of A Pebble for Your Thoughts, is based on the profound truth that one kind message at the right moment can change someone’s day, their outlook, and their whole life. This rock painting project has become an international grassroots movement! The messages on these positivity pebbles take many forms: gratitude, affirmations, encouragement, offers of hope?all signposts along the way for someone to find at exactly the right time. Now more than ever, people are longing for kindness and connection. During these uncertain times, daily news reports focus on disturbing events of terrorism, gun violence, senseless murders, and political bickering. We are bombarded with images that evoke fear and hostility. The Kindness Rocks Journal provides a space to create a positive counteraction to all this negativity. Sometimes, all it takes is just one simple positive message to change your perspective, and that is what this interactive writing journal aims to help you do. In the Kindness Rocks Journal, you will have space to:Respond to helpful journal prompts, affirmations, and quotesGrow through hard times with kindness and joyLearn how to paint an inspirational Kindness Rock and share it with others Fans of Start with Gratitude, The Kindness Challenge and the Chicken Soup for the Soul books will love the Kindness Rocks Journal.

A New York Times Bestseller For Lady Gaga, kindness is the driving force behind everything she says and does. The quiet power of kindness can change the way we view one another, our communities, and even ourselves. She embodies this mission, and through her work, brings more kindness into our world every single day. Lady Gaga has always believed in the importance of being yourself, being kind to yourself, and being kind to others, no matter who they are or where they come from. With that sentiment in mind, she and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, founded Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the world a kinder and braver place. Through the years, they've collected stories of kindness, bravery and resilience from young people all over the world, proving that kindness truly is the universal language. And now, we invite you to read these stories and follow along as each and every young author finds their voice just as Lady Gaga has found hers. Within these pages, you’ll meet young changemakers who found their inner strength, who prevailed in the face of bullies, who started their own social movements, who decided to break through the mental health stigma and share how they felt, who created safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and who have embraced kindness with every fiber of their being by helping others without the expectation of anything in return. In one story, you’ll read about a young person with an autoimmune disease, who after being bullied at school, learned how to practice self-love and started an organization with the mission of educating others about the importance of self-love, too; and in another story, you’ll meet a young person who decided to start a movement to help eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and encouraged others to talk about their feelings openly and honestly, a reminder that kindness and mental wellness go hand in hand. Not only were we moved by these individual acts of kindness, but we were also touched by the many stories of organizations, neighborhoods, and entire communities that fully dedicated themselves to helping those in need and found new, innovative ways to make our world a kinder and braver place. Individually and collectively, these stories prove that kindness not only saves lives but builds community. Kindness is inclusion, it is pride, it is empathy, it is compassion, it is self-respect and it is the guiding light to love. Kindness is always transformational, and its never-ending ripples result in even more kind acts that can change our lives, our communities, and our world.

Lively writing, colorful photos, and bright borders make this craft book particularly inviting. The real fun begins with Linda Kranz offering step-by-step, well-illustrated directions for decorating small, flat stones with flowers, animals, heart shapes, sports motifs, foods, places, holiday designs, and more. The finished items are perfect gifts, which young children, perennially in search of inexpensive presents, will appreciate. By providing hours of creative entertainment at little cost, this offering is sure to be popular with crafty children and their teachers and caregivers.

• With more than 30 step-by-step tutorials, this is the comprehensive rock art resource. • Covers many different craft techniques for decorating rocks: puffy paint, acrylic paint, oil pastels, gelatos, art pens, and more. • Parenting resource—Great craft for parents to do with kids. Cross-merchandizing opportunity with paints and pens. • The author’s rock doodling Facebook video has nearly 2 million views; her galaxy rock video has 500,000+. • Featured in a recent TODAY show report, “kindness rock” painting is a full-scale trend!

Do you find yourself wanting more out of life? It’s time to bring play to your every day Play is not just for kids! There are many reasons we need play in our lives. The Playful Life shows you why and how to bring more playfulness to all aspects of your life. You’ll explore how to create meaningful, relevant, and fun experiences for yourself and others through both a playful mindset and playful behaviors. Through research and 20+ years of teaching children and adults, authors Dr. Julie Jones and Jed Dearybury have found that play is not only fun, it’s essential to a full life. In this book, they share their knowledge and inspire you to reflect on the need for connection and joy for healthy living through play. This book will equip you with new definitions, ideas, and ways of thinking about play for your daily life. With a relaxed tone, comical banter, and real talk, the authors encourage new understandings about what play is and empower you to make more playful choices. If you strive to find balance, overcome stress, and enjoy each day through play—The Playful Life is a must read for your life journey! Learn what play means and why it’s so essential to our everyday lives—at every age Discover the incredible benefits of play to your physical and mental health Get ideas for incorporating play into your everyday life at work, at home, or when you’re out and about Begin healing past traumas and grow into the person you are meant to be—through play and playful living! Building on the popular book The Playful Classroom, this is a new and exciting take on what play does for all of us-- physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.

Great ideas on how to improve the world all year long, from simple acts you can do for yourself to big things you can do for your community, and more. In 1995, a small group of people at Conari Press came together around the idea that small gestures and simple acts can make a difference in people's lives. Thus, Random Acts of Kindness was born. But they had no idea how big this little idea would become, or that it would sell over one million copies. This good-humored guide to being the change you want to see in the world is filled with suggestions for making a real difference, in ways both large and small. From improving someone’s life with just one penny to ensuring all children are well fed, the day-by-day positive proposals of Random Acts of Kindness combine inspiration with action. Despite the hurly-burly of our busy lives, we can all make a beneficial impact on the environment, throughout out local community, and within our own hearts. This book of inspired ideas and good deeds conveys how the power of one?that is, you?can make a better world starting today! This little book shows how to start?with the small, with the particular, with the individual?in order to make a difference in the world. Random Acts of Kindness features: True stories about acts of kindness and generosity of spirit Suggestions for living more compassionately Inspirational quotes to get you started Celebrate National Random Acts of Kindness Week in February. Perform deeds of compassion and consideration toward others.

An NPR Best Book of 2021 NYPL 10 Best Books for Adults, 2021 A story collection, in the vein of Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, spanning worlds and dimensions, using strange and speculative elements to tackle issues ranging from class differences to immigration to first-generation experiences to xenophobia What does it mean to be other? What does it mean to love in a world determined to keep us apart? These questions murmur in the heart of each of Brenda Peynado’s strange and singular stories. Threaded with magic, transcending time and place, these stories explore what it means to cross borders and break down walls, personally and politically. In one story, suburban families perform oblations to cattlelike angels who live on their roofs, believing that their “thoughts and prayers” will protect them from the world’s violence. In another, inhabitants of an unnamed dictatorship slowly lose their own agency as pieces of their bodies go missing and, with them, the essential rights that those appendages serve. “The Great Escape” tells of an old woman who hides away in her apartment, reliving the past among beautiful objects she’s hoarded, refusing all visitors, until she disappears completely. In the title story, children begin to levitate, flying away from their parents and their home country, leading them to eat rocks in order to stay grounded. With elements of science fiction and fantasy, fabulism and magical realism, Brenda Peynado uses her stories to reflect our flawed world, and the incredible, terrifying, and marvelous nature of humanity.